Not applicable
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of computers computing, and more particularly relates to the menu items in the field of graphical user interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Graphical user interfaces have been improving for a long time. From the beginning of computer history, computer developers have been working on ways to improve the easy of use of the machine with end-user by building better user interfaces. One of the purposes of the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were to make it easier to perform complicated tasks such a moving files and starting programs. The history of computer GUI goes back to a project by the Xerox Corporation in the 1970s to present information more easily to end-users. Soon Apple through its Macintosh and Lisa line of products, Microsoft through its Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 products, IBM through its OS/2 products and others began to offer even more sophisticated GUIs and improved on the innovations made by Xerox. Higher resolution displays, the introduction of color graphics , the use of animated objects, the use of photorealistic pictures and even the introduction of 3-D user interfaces have greatly improved the ease of use of the computer. of GUIs.
Although GUIs have continued to evolve and make tasks easier for end-users there are some tasks that are still very burdensome to complete. Referring to FIG. 1 is a screen capture of an application program 100 entitled xe2x80x9cPaintxe2x80x9d that ships with Windows 95 and other Microsoft products. Shown is a typical pull-down menu bar 102 with various menu items. One menu 108 item entitled xe2x80x9cViewxe2x80x9d has an associated pull-down menu 104 with various end-user selectable options, such as the option 106 entitled xe2x80x9cColor Boxxe2x80x9d. The pull down menu 104 is activated by moving cursor 112 with a mouse (not shown) or other graphical pointing device. A check box 110 denoted by symbol xe2x80x9c✓xe2x80x9d notifies the end-user that this option 106 xe2x80x9cColor Boxxe2x80x9d is currently selected. The instant the end-user selects this option 106 xe2x80x9cColor Boxxe2x80x9d the pull-down menu 104 is programed to disappear from the application program 100 and the cursor changes to a pencil 202 as shown in FIG. 2. This action of changing the state of an option 106 from enabled to disabled is disruptive to the end-user. The end-user cannot discern that the action has been completed or what selection has been made because the box has disappeared. The end-user many times re-pulls opens the pull-down menu 104 to double check to determine if the option 106 state has been changed. The option state 106 in this example would change from the check box 110 denoted by symbol xe2x80x9c✓xe2x80x9d to an absence of a checked box 110. Of course, alternately for this particular example an end-user may notice that the corresponding graphic 114 for the option 106 xe2x80x9cColor Boxxe2x80x9d has disappeared, as shown in FIG. 2. However, many times the end-user is a novice with an application program 100 and may not understand what items changed on the application screen. Moreover, many times application program 100 does not give any graphical feedback at all to an end-user of the state of an option 106 has changed. Accordingly, a need exists for a method to provide the end-user feedback that an option state has changed.
Still another burden with the changing of option states in menus, dialog boxes using radio buttons and other types of menu choices in which the menu closes immediately is the requirement of changing several options at once. Stated differently, if an end-user wishes to change more than one option in a pull-down menu 104, such as both option 106 xe2x80x9cColor Boxxe2x80x9d and option 116 xe2x80x9cStatus Barxe2x80x9d, the end-user must repeat the action of selecting pull-down menu bar 102 with various menu items. Each option 106 and 116 must be selected individually. This is unnecessarily burdensome. Accordingly, a need exists for a method to provide an end-user a method for selecting many option states on one menu item without having to reopen the menu.
Although the examples in FIGS. 1 and 2 have been limited to one example of application program 100 and one type of menu, i.e., pull-down menu 104, other menu types including radio buttons and check boxes, that disappear automatically after the end-user makes a selection suffer the same shortcomings as discussed above for the pull-down menu 104. Accordingly, a need exists to overcome the problems with changing states on application program options with these menu types as well.
Briefly, in accordance with the present invention, a method for presenting a graphical menu item on a display. The method comprising the steps of: receiving a time delay selected by an end-user; presenting to the end-user a graphical menu item wherein at least one menu item having an selectable option state; receiving input from the end-user for changing the option state on at least one menu item; and waiting an amount of time greater than the time delay before removing the graphical menu item from the display.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, an information processing system and computer readable storage medium is disclosed for carrying out the above method.